Winter is the season for pines. And pines are a good place to start in getting to know the trees of Western North Carolina. Along with the oaks, they constitute, in my opinion, the backbone of our ...

If you happen to be hiking on a rocky, exposed slope and you see smallish pine trees with cones that look like they would hurt if they fell on your head, you might be looking at a Table Mountain pine ...

Well, good luck with that! I'd recommend clippers if you really need one of these pine cones. Strong, stout clippers. Table mountain pine, Pinus pungens, seed cones, shown here from a mountain top in ...

A native shrub coming into bloom in June is the common ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius). Ninebark is a fast-growing multiple-stemmed shrub that prefers moist areas with moderate amounts of sunshine.

An explosion of fresh green growth is filling the blackened ridges where deadly wildfires burned in the Great Smoky Mountains and Sevier County in November 2016. Scars on the land are still visible ...

Winter is the season for pines. Emblems of longevity, pines are a good place to start in getting to know the trees of Western North Carolina. Along with the oaks and hickories they constitute, in my ...

Do you know what the state tree of North Carolina is? If you said the pine tree, you are correct. In 1963 the pine tree was designated the state tree of North Carolina, but did you know it goes ...